Israel’s 60th Birthday

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Over 4000 people demonstrated against the Turin book-fair’s “celebration” of Israeli writers. The fair has come under a great deal of pressure from progressive authors around the world who have publically boycotted the book-fair, while others have come under pressure from their readers to cancel their participation. SPSC mailing list

The following is an excellent find by Idrees of The Fanonite.

A decent documentary from the best television news channel out there — Al Jazeera International. However, it is mostly an Israeli perspective featuring Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim, Uri Avnery, Shulamit Aloni et al.

(thanks Shahbaz)

A special series examining the origins, violent creation, and modern-day reality of the state of Israel through the stories of individual Israelis.

Episode two, Conflict, looks at how the still small Jewish population succeeded in defeating a far larger Palestinian population and asks if a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing was employed.

Brown praises the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the following from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.  We might ask: is he aware of how many Palestinian victims have been persecuted?

GORDON Brown… pledged at a service on Wednesday night to mark the Jewish state’s 60th birthday that Britain would continue to be “a true and constant friend of Israel in good times and in bad”. And he announced that he would soon by paying Israel a visit.

“We will never reduce our efforts to secure for Israel a future free from terror, a future where - alongside a viable Palestinian state - children and the children of all your neighbours can believe in a brighter future.”
With his father - a church minister - being a frequent visitor to Israel, he said he learned of the fight for a Jewish homeland, the Balfour declaration and the promises made - some of which have been honoured and some which have been broken. “I learned of the ancient dream of the Jewish nation becoming reality in the modern state of Israel,” Mr Brown went on.

…He announced that against the backdrop of the current political process - which presented all with the real opportunity to move forward - he would be visiting Israel in July at the invitation of Ehud Olmert…he was well aware of just how many victims and persecution were part of Israel’s history. (sic)

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Seems to be a trend across Europe that the fascists are supporting Israel (not surprising they’d support a racist colonial project) what is more alarming is that Jewish groups are starting to support them.  The following from the London FT.

Rome’s election last week of its first rightwing mayor since the time of Benito Mussolini has been celebrated by fascists as a historic victory over the left.

Packs of young, thuggish supporters of Gianni Alemanno greeted the new mayor’s appearance at the Campidoglio city hall with straight-armed “Roman” salutes, shouting abuse at communists and foreign immigrants.

“Before, if you were a fascist you had to pretend to be part of the mainstream to have respectability. Now they are coming out of the closet,” said an aide to defeated centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli.

Debate over the significance of the National Alliance’s first election victory in a major city has been intense - especially among the capital’s small but important Jewish commun-ity, which is widely thought to have swung in Mr Alemanno’s favour. Rome’s Jewish voters, numbering about 9,000, explain their shift to the right in various ways, most often because they see the National Alliance as firmly pro-Israel.

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With the way Israel treats its Arab Israeli citizens and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank the State is clearly running an apartheid system here an article leading Israeli paper, the Haaretz, agrees.:

The anchorwoman was clearly shocked: I don’t have time now to respond to what you have said, she told the former U.S. president, allowing Jimmy Carter to make a narrow escape from her clutches. Then she added that she did not want to imagine what would happen to him if he bumped into her colleague from the security affairs desk in Channel 2’s dark alley. And the pundit sitting there, sunk in deep thought as always, nodded his heavy head, confirming: He’s lucky, the bastard, that we didn’t gang up on him and cut him to shreds.

That’s how it is here: The rulers set the tone, and the media begins to gripe: Not only did Carter’s mission not help, it did damage. He alone was the reason Gilad Shalit was not ransomed out of captivity during the holiday. That’s what happens when an enemy of the human race, the twin of the Twin Towers’ bin Laden, sticks his nose where it does not belong.

Let’s let old Carter be, so he may let sleeping warriors lie; he will not be back. The contents of his words, however, should not be ignored. “Apartheid,” he said, “apartheid” - a dark, scary word coined by Afrikaners and meaning segregation, racial segregation.

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Excellent post from Chet Justice:

There is very little that can be said to add to the eloquence of Dr. Haidar Eid’s appeal to Nadine Gordimer not to participate in “Israel at 60″ celebrations. He reviews her anti-apartheid, anti-racist credentials and calls attention to other prominent South Africans, such as Archbishop Tutu, who have condemned Israel’s occupation and compared it, not favorably, to apartheid. He recalls Israel’s sordid history with the South African apartheid regime, and her friendship with Edward Said. By the time I was done reading the letter, I couldn’t imagine what had possessed her to agree to come in the first place.

The letter also subtly reminds us that Gaza is not simply war-torn and beaten down, but still a place where dedicated teachers teach and students study. It is unfortunate but true that we need this reminder.

The second article suggests that the pressure may be working, and that Ms. Gordimer is considering pulling out of her appearance in Israel next month. If this should occur, it would certainly be a boon to the boycott Israel movement. Israel’s 60th anniversary, similarly to China’s Summer Olympics, may turn out to be a more effective tool for protests than a celebration of Israel’s 60 years.

–Rebecca Vilkomerson, Guest Editor for JPN

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17248

Nadine Gordimer on her decision to participate in “Israel at 60 Celebrations”
April 24, 2008 By Dr. Haidar Eid
Dear Ms. Gordimer,
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Israel’s ally the US is not to happy over their spying - leaving a sour taste before the upcoming ‘celebrations’ of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The Bush administration has yet to indicate that the arrest of a former US army engineer on charges he spied for Israel will seriously affect relations between the two countries.

Privately, several US officials have downplayed the incident and suggested fears of blowback are unjustified.

They have pointed to the lengthy amount of time - 23 years - since the espionage is alleged to have occurred and the understandings that emerged between the two states after the arrest of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard roiled ties between the two allies.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey spoke of the case only in terms of its connection to the Pollard affair and didn’t speak of broader national security implications when asked at a press briefing after the news broke.

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Gideon Levy from the Haaretz:

At about midnight, the house was surrounded by soldiers. Mohammed Abu Arkub, a barber, woke up frightened at the sound of loud knocking on the door and the shouts demanding it be opened. Abu Arkub rushed to open the door and the soldiers pulled him outside and ordered him to take all the members of the household outside immediately. His wife Lubna and his two young daughters were sleeping, along with Lubna’s two younger sisters, who live with them. He woke them up and ordered them to go outside. His brother, Rami, who lives alone in the adjacent hut, was also called to go outside.

The night of March 19, the village of Wadi al-Shajneh in the South Hebron Hills, south of the town of Dura. The family stood outside for about 10 minutes, half asleep in the cold night air, and then the soldiers ordered them to all go inside Rami’s hut. Two soldiers stood at the door, guarding the family so they wouldn’t go out. The rest of the soldiers in the force entered the home of the barber and his wife and began to conduct a search. Abu Akrub asked to be present during the search, but the soldiers prevented him from doing so. The routine of the occupation.

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Really excellent commentry on the Windsor Castle event by Jews Sans Frontieres. The end I found especially funny, when you read through the comments you can’t help but notice some truth to it:

Apparently, the royal celebrations of 60 years of ethnic cleansing of Palestine and relentless aggression towards its natives and neighbours was a bit of a damp squib, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency drawing on a report in the Jewish Chronicle.

Prince Edward became the first royal officially to participate in Israel’s independence celebrations at a JNF-UJIA dinner at Windsor Castle on Monday.

Standing in for his father, the Duke of Edinburgh who had been hospitalised with a chest infection several days earlier, the Earl of Wessex attended a champagne reception for the 300-strong gathering.

Even though he left before dinner, he greeted guests including Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

Wow, how exciting! The Earl of Wessex no less, and even he had better things to do than break bread with a bunch of rich zionists. Ponder this, the Earl of Wessex? The Earl of an earldom that doesn’t exist greeting activists for a state that shouldn’t exist. Was there a message from the royals there?

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Its disgusting that the poor can’t celebrate the ethnic cleaning of Palestine! Well according to Rachel Fletcher, Leon Symons and Candice Krieger it is:

Prince Edward became the first royal officially to participate in Israel’s independence celebrations at a JNF-UJIA dinner at Windsor Castle on Monday. Standing in for his father, the Duke of Edinburgh who had been hospitalised with a chest infection several days earlier, the Earl of Wessex attended a champagne reception for the 300-strong gathering. Even though he left before dinner, he greeted guests including Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

And a number of leading community names were also absent. Sources suggested that the venue and the £5,000-per-couple price had been seen by some as exclusive and prohibitive.
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A student group in Florida is celebrating Israel’s 60th Birthday in order to remind people that Israel “is a country like every other country.” The only problem is that Israel is NOT a country like any other. Its a colonial project where the Europian settlers ethnically cleansed the natives 60 years ago - which this group are now celebrating. Its also a racist country concerned with its “demographic problem” that it should have a majority Jewish population to remain a “Jewish State.” Not to mention the continued occupation, murder and dispossession of the natives population.

A Jewish student organization on Florida State’s campus plans to celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday with free hookah, Israeli food and an attempt to break the world record for biggest dance circle.

Hillel’s celebration, “Blue and White on the Green,” will go for 18 hours, starting at 8 p.m. Saturday and ending at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Events include musical and dance performances on FSU’s Union Green, a showing of the movie “West Bank Story” and a bonfire for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Melanie Annis, Hillel’s director, said the purpose of the event is to get people to recognize that Israel is more than what’s portrayed in the media.

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Excellent article by fellow Scot John Hilley:

9 April 2008 marked the terrible events of Deir Yassin, sixty years after 254 of the village’s Palestinian men, women and children were massacred by Zionist forces.

You didn’t hear anything about it on the BBC. You didn’t see any recognition of it by the US, EU and other ‘civilised’ Western governments. And you certainly won’t find any message of regret over it from a state which has sought to bury the truth of this and multiple other atrocities with all those murdered Palestinians.

For Israel, its allies and their media stenographers, Deir Yassin doesn’t merit special commemoration. But it’s a name, a village, a place, a painful memory still firmly fixed in Palestinian consciousness.

Drawing on Ilan Pappe’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and other key sources, a fine article from Ronnie Kasrils reminds us that Deir Yassin was part of the Zionists’ calculated campaign of pogroms, which is why every person of conscience should be protesting over Israel’s 60th ‘birthday’:

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I completely agree that the Israeli Governments reckless warmongering and refusal to negiotiate a lasting peace with the Palestinians will continue to cause both peoples to suffer and will ultimately unravel the Zionist dream of a majority Jewish State.  Olmerts justification of the Israeli State seems to be that its the only place where Jews can fight for their lives.  Its also the only place where they need too - thanks to his Government and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.  From the Jerusalem Post (thanks Ann):

As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, the respected Atlantic Monthly magazine is keeping the champagne firmly corked.

Splashed across its forthcoming May front cover is the question, “Is Israel finished?”

In his 12-page article, Jeffrey Goldberg, an award-winning journalist and American Jew who made aliya and served in the IDF, asks a series of follow-up questions: “How can Israel survive the next 60 years in a part of the world that gives rise to groups like Hamas? How can Israel flourish if its army cannot defeat small bands of rocketeers? Does the concentration of so many Jews in a claustrophobically small space in the world’s most volatile region actually undermine the Jewish people’s ability to survive?”

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New York is to hold a large celebration of Israel’s 60th Birthday aka the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in Washington Square.  The square is set to be the largest graveyard dance floor - dancing while Palestinians mourn the murder and displacement of their relatives is disgusting.

Washington Square in New York has seen its fair share of the city’s most notable cultural events: Just recently this famous square was the site for a campaign rally for US presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama, as well as for a memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 terror attack.

In May, however, Washington Square will be flooded with American youths looking to celebrate, dance and party with the State of Israel as it marks its 60th anniversary.

The Israeli Consulate in New York has organized a dance party, to be held in Washington Square on May 8, in honor of Israel’s independence.

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